Manufacture of textile materials



Patented Apr. 7, 1936 2,036,855 MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILE MATERIALS William Alexander Dickie, Spondon, near Derby,

England, assignor to Celanese Corporation of America, a corporation of Delaware No Drawing. Application December 26, 1931,

Serial No. 1931 9 Claim.

This invention relates to the treatment of artificial yarns, threads, filaments, horsehair, tapes, straws, bristles or the like, made of or containing cellulose acetate or other organic derivatives of cellulose, and is particularly, though not exclusively, concerned with the production of textile fabrics, containing such yarns or the like, and having a crepe or other similar figured effect.

Heretofore, crepe effects have been produced on such fabrics, as on fabrics of other natural or artificial filaments or fibres, by the use of high twist yarns, having say 50 or 60 to 80 r more turns per inch, these generally being employed with both rightand left-hand twist in the one fabric, for example alternate weft picks or alternate pairs ofpicks having rightand left-hand twist respectively may be used with a warp of the same or different material, and either having a similar alternating arrangement of high twist yarns or yarns of a low or medium (e. g voile) twist. The crepe effect is brought out in the finlshing of the fabrics, the high twist yarns contracting and bringing about displacement of the yarns which they, cross in the fabrics.

According to the invention artificial yarns, threads, filaments, horsehair, tapes. straws, bristles or the like made of or containing cellulose acetate or other organic derivatives of cellulose are subjected to the action of a rigid pressing device adapted permanently to distort the yarns or the like. By treating the yarns of a fabric in this mannencrepe or other figured effects are produced-in the fabrics without relying on the presence of high twist in the yarns to bring about the effects, the action of the device bringing about a displacement of the yarns ,or the filaments or fibres of the yarns in fabrics in which they are woven in such a manner as to simulate the effect ordinarily produced by the contraction of high twist yarns. This pressure may be applied to the fabric after weaving and may be such as to bring about a displacement of either weft or warp yarns, or both, or it may be applied to the yarn before weaving, e. g. to a set of beamed warps, or to weft yarn at any suitable stage before winding it into pirns or other weft packages.

Cellulose acetate and other organic derivatives of cellulose being thermoplastic, the application of the pressure under heat results in a permanent displacement of the yarns, and, consequently, a permanent effect upon the fabrics containing them. The invention is not limited however, to the production of fabrics having figured effects, the yarns and the like particularly when in the 583,408. In Great Britain March 2,

form of unitary filaments, such as horsehair, straws, bristles or the like, being capable of many useful applications when treated according to the invention apart from theproduction of crepe effects.

When the yarns are treated after being woven into fabrics, the pressure may be applied by an. embossing roller or other rigid device having a raised surface corresponding in appearance to the surface of a crepe fabric, and adapted to dis- 1 place the yarns in the fabric, so that the desired crepe effect is evident immediately on pressing. It is possible, however, to use pressing surfaces which consist of a series of small geometrical figures, such as circles, squares, triangles, or 15 lozenges, which may intersect each other and form small surfaces of varying prominence, for while the first result of pressing is to reproduce this series of figures on the fabric, the usual finishing treatment reduces the precision of the 20 applied design and the final effect is very similar to the figured appearance of crepe fabric. Even where the pressing surface itself has a crpe effect, the finishing of the fabric serves to enhance the crepe effect produced on the fabric. 5 Not only can geometrical figures be employed on the pressing surface, but almost any kind of rigid surface having a regular or irregular design small enough to give the required displacement of the yarns in the fabric, the finishing treatment 30 breaking up the design on the fibre to give the characteristic crepe appearance. After the slight modification of their displaced position undergone by the'threads during finishing, the final crepe effect is exceedingly stablein character, 35 and is not removed by such operations as dyeing and washing.

Similar rigid pressing devices to those described above may be used on the warp yarns or a number of weft yarns before weaving, or upon 40 yarns or unitary filaments so produced. It is however suflicient to use pressing devices of simpler design, such as for example a series of regularly or irregularly disposed axial or diagonal ridges which flatten and/or corrugate theyarns 45 so that their filaments or fibres are displaced and remain so during the weaving of the warps. The pitch of the ridges should vary in accordance with the denier, higher denier requiring coarser pitch, and may be regular or may vary in differ cut parts of the pressing device. As in the case of the embossed fabrics, the finishing of fabrics woven from already embossed yarn enhances the crepe effect by breaking up the definition of the embossed portions.

It is preferred that the pressure applied by the pressing devices described above should be controlled in order that it should not be so severe upon the fabrics or yarns under treatment as to damage them. For this purpose, the pressing surfaces should be so mounted that they are held out of contact with one another and are so prevented from cutting the yarns. Thus, if rollers are used having patterned surfaces, the patterns should be such as to intermesh without allowing contact between the surfaces of the rollers, and the rollers should be positively and preferably adjustably spaced apart, and synchronously driven. By these means the yarns passing between the rollers are distorted, the clearance between the rollers being small enough for the application of a distinct pressure upon the yarns, while at the same time any risk of damage to the yarns is avoided. f

It is of advantage to treat the fabrics or yarns with solvents or softeners for the cellulose derivatives before pressing to facilitate the taking up of the design. Examples of suitable treating liquids are acetone, alcohol, cyclo-hexanone, acetic acid, aceto-acetic ester, lactic acid, ethyl lactate, diacetone alcohol, glycerine, the monoand diethers and esters of olefine and Doly-olefine glycols and glycerine, including the cyclic ethers such as dioxane, and the esters of such mono-- ethers, e. g. ethyl glycol, ethyl glycol monoacetate, glycol monoacetate, the mono-ethyl ether of diethylene glycol monoacetate, and monoand diacetine, suitably diluted if necessary. Non-volatile plastifiers such as triacetine and monomethyl xylene sulphonamide may be added to thesoftening liquid, as also may lubricants such as olive oil, oleic acid, and ammonium oleate. Water may also be used, especially in conjunction with the substances above-mentioned, particularly as a diluent. Benzene may likewise be used as a diluent.

The fabrics may be treated before or after dyeing or finishing, and in the first case the size used on the yarns may be such as facilitate the taking up of the design. For example, sizes containing glycerine, mono-acetine, or di-acetine may be used. When yarns are given the pressing treatment, they may be given a coating of such size for the same purpose.

Though the pressing treatment results in a figured effect which is independent of high twist in the yarns in the fabric, and thus enables very good crepe effects to be obtained with yarns of lower twist than would be required if twist alone were relied on to produce the effects, it is advantageous to use yarns in the fabrics which have a more or less high twist. For example yarns having a voile twist of to turns per inch may be used to produce a fabric which, with the pressing treatment applied to the yarns or to the fabric itself, exhibits as good a crepe effect as if yarns of 50 to 60 or more turns per inch had been employed. Yarns having more or less twist than those specified above may also be used to produce a correspondingly greater or less figure on the fabric.

Yarns may undergo the pressing treatment before, during, or after twisting. Further, the crepe yarns prepared by two or more stages of twisting as described in U. S. application S. No. 523,930 filed 19th March, 1931 or the high twist, low denier crepe yarns described in U. S. application S. No. 523,931 filed 19th March, 1931 may be employed, and the pressing treatment may be applied between the twisting stages employed in the production of such yarns.

In order to improve the crepe effect of the fabric still further, the medium or high twist yarns may be coated with swellable sizes, such as algin, casein, egg albumen, rubber latex, cellulose, or cellulose derivatives, as described in Patents Nos. 1,993,922 and 2,007,182, before, during, or after twisting, the fabrics then being treated to swell the sizes. Swelling of the crepe yarns themselves may likewise be resorted to, e. g. by means of solutions, emulsions or dispersions of organic swelling agents or by means of highly concentrated solutions of organic or inorganic salts, as described in U. S. applications S. Nos. 501,461 filed 10th December, 1930 and 527,358 filed 2nd April, 1931 and Patent No. 1,995,296. The enhanced crepe effect may also be used cumulatively with the crepe effect obtainable by the alternate disposition in the fabrics of yarns having rightand left-hand twist. Thus, for example, the weft may comprise alternating picks or alternating pairs of picks of rightand lefthand twist of medium, high, or very high degree, and the warp may have a similar arrangement of yarns or may have unslzed low twist or voile twist yarns. Of course, the warp alone may have medium, high or very high twist yarns, and the weft low or medium twist yarns.

Though the invention has been described above with reference only to yarns consisting of cellulose acetate or other organic derivatives of cellulose, and to fabrics consisting of such yarns, it is to be understood that the permanent creping obtained by the displacement of such thermoplastic yarns enables the effects of the invention to be brought out in yarns and fabrics not consisting wholly of cellulose acetate or other organic derivatives of cellulose but partly of such materials and partly of other natural or artificial filaments or fibres such as reconstituted cellulose. e. g. viscose, nitrocellulose, and cuprammonium silk, natural silk, cotton, and wool. Thus, the weft and/or warp may contain one or more such other yarns in addition to the cellulose derivative yarns, or the weft or warp may consist wholly of such non-thermoplastic yarns if the warp or weft, as the case may be, contains cellulose derivative yarns.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:-

1. In the production of fabrics having crepe and like figured effects, the step of submitting substantially highly twisted thermoplastic yarns to an embossing operation under heat so as to distort said yarns locally and to combine in the yarns distorted portions resulting from the embossing operation and unembossed portions in which the latent crepeing tendency due to twist is to some extent localized, thereby enabling the twist to react differentially in the yarns to produce an enhanced figured effect.

2. In the production of fabrics having crepe and like figured effects, the step of submitting substantially highly twisted yarns of organic derivatives of cellulose to an embossing operation under heat so as to distort said yarns locally and to combine in the yarns distorted portions resulting from the embossing operation and unembossed portions in which the latent creping tendency due to twist is to some extent localized, thereby enabling the twist to react differentially in the yarns to produce an enhanced figured effect.

3. In the production of fabrics having crepe and like figured effects, the step of submitting substantially highly twisted yarns of cellulose ac- ..etate to an embossing operation under heat so as to distort said yarns locally and to combine in the yarns distorted portions resulting from the embossing operation and unembossed portions in which the latent creping tendency due to twist is to some extent localizedlthereby enabling the twist to react differentially in the yarns to producean enhanced figured effect.

4. In the production of fabrics having crepe and like figured efiects, the steps of moistening substantially highly twisted yarns of organic derivatives of cellulose with a liquid having a softening action on said derivatives, and submitting them while moist to an embossing operation under heat so as to distort said yarns locally and to combine in the yarns distorted portions resulting from the embossing operation and unembossed portions in which the latent creping tendency due to twist is to some extent localized, thereby enabling the twist to react differentially in the yarns to produce an enhanced figured effect.

5. In the production of fabrics having crepe and like figured efiects, the steps of forming a number of substantially highly twisted thermoplastic yarns into a warp, and submiting them in that form to an embossing operation under heat so as to distort said-yarns locally and to combine in the yarns distorted portions resulting from the embossing operation and unembossed portions in which the latent creping tendency due to twist is to some extent localized, thereby enabling the twist to react differentially in the yarns to produce and enhanced figured effect.

6. In the production of fabrics having crpe and like figured effects, the steps of weaving substantially highly twisted thermoplastic yarns into a fabric, and embossing such fabric under heat so as to distort the yarns therein locally, and to combine in the yarns distorted portions resulting from the embossing operation and unembossed portions in which the latent creping tendency due to the twist is to some extent localized, thereby enabling the twist in the yarns to react differentially in the embossed and unembossed areas of the fabric to produce an enhanced figured effect.

7. In the production of fabrics having crepe and like figured effects, the steps of weaving substantially highly twisted yarns of organic derivatives of cellulose into a fabric, moistening such fabric with a liquid having a softening action on such derivatives and embossing such fabric under heat in order to distort the yarns therein locally, so that said yarns comprise distorted portions in the embossed areas of the fabric and portions in the unembossed areas in which latter portions the latent creping tendency due to twist is localized thereby enabling the twist to react difierentially in the embossed and unembossed areas to produce an enhanced figured effect on the fabric.

8. In the production of fabrics having crepe and like figured effects, the steps of weaving substantially highly twisted thermoplastic yarns into a fabric, embossing the fabric under heat so as to distort the yarns therein locally and to combine in the yarns distorted portions resulting from the embossing operation and unembossed portions in which the creping tendency due to twist is to some extent localized, and submitting the fabric to a finishing operation to cause the twist in the yarn to take eifect, whereby the twist reacts differentially in the embossed and unembossed areas to produce an enhanced figured effect on the fabric.

9. In the production of fabrics having crepe effects, the steps of weaving substantially highly twisted cellulose acetate yarns into a fabric, em-

bossing the fabric under heat so as to distort the 

